Floor cleaning in public, commercial, institutional and industrial buildings have led to the development of various specialized floor cleaning machines. These machines include dedicated floor sweeping machines, dedicated floor scrubbing machines and combination floor sweeping and scrubbing machines.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary floor cleaner 300 in the form of a combination floor sweeping and scrubbing machine that is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,407, which assigned to Tennant Company of Minneapolis, Minn. The floor cleaner 300 is a ride-on cleaner that includes a driver's seat 302 and controls 304. The floor cleaner 300 includes a sweep/scrub head 306 for performing sweeping and scrubbing operations on the floor. The depicted scrub head 306 includes two cylindrical brushes 308 that counter-rotate relative to each. Water or cleaning liquid is applied to the floor to a leading side 310 of the head 306 so the brushes 308 can scour the floor at the same time they are sweeping debris from the floor. A vacuum squeegee 312, positioned on a trailing side 314 of the head 306, collects soiled cleaning liquid, which is delivered it to a waste recovery tank 316 through tubing 318 under suction generated by a vacuum 320.
A debris tray 322 of the cleaner 300 is positioned on the trailing side 314 of the head 306 and the tray 322 collects wet and dry waste that is discharged from the head 306. Liquid can be removed from the tray 322 through a vacuumized de-watering system. The de-watering system includes a perforated separator 324 in the tray 306 that is connected to the waste recovery tank 316 through tubing 326. During cleaning operations, liquid in the tray 322 is extracted through the perforated separator 324 and the tubing 326 and is deposited into the waste recovery tank 316 in response to the suction generated by the vacuum fan 320.
The tray 322 must be manually dumped by the operator. The tray 322 is accessed by pivoting an end of the vacuum squeegee 312 away from the rear end 328 of the cleaner 300 and then pivoting a carriage 330, in which the tray 322 is supported, toward the rear end 328 and out from behind the wheel 332. One or more operators must directly handle the tray 322 to dump its contents. For example, the operator must grab the tray 322 directly by hand to remove the tray 322 from the carriage 330, move the tray 322 to the desired dumping location, dump the tray 322, and reinstall the tray 322 in the carriage 330. Since the tray 322 lacks wheels, it must either be carried or dragged to the desired dumping location.
As a result, one or more individuals are forced to interact/touch the collected waste material or waste material that has adhered to the tray 322. Additionally, the individuals must bend over to move and dump the tray 322, which can weigh as much as 150 pounds depending on the amount of waste collected and the amount of liquid present in the waste. The maneuvering of the tray 322 is further hampered by the necessity to drag it across the ground or carry it.
The tubing 326 connecting the perforated separator 324 to the waste recovery tank 316 includes a main tubing section 334 having an end coupled to the waste recovery tank 316 and a tray tubing section 336 having an end coupled to the perforated separator 324. The other ends of the main and tray tubing sections 334 and 336 must be manually coupled and decoupled during installation and removal of the tray 322 from the carriage 330 of the cleaner 300. Such a procedure requires the operator to get on the floor and reach underneath the cleaner 300 to locate and couple the two tubing sections together. Occasionally, this step in the process of reinstalling the tray 322 in the carriage 330 is overlooked thereby leaving the main and tray tubing sections 334 and 336 disconnected. When this occurs, the de-watering system becomes inactive and liquid can overflow the tray and contaminate the surface being cleaned. The tubing of the de-watering system must also have enough slack to allow the operator to make the necessary connection, which can also cause problems.
There exists a continuous demand for improvements to combination floor cleaning machines including, for example, simplifying waste removal operations, improving maintenance access to components of the machine, providing features that prevent or reduce the likelihood of damaging the machine, and other improvements.